From Jen Marie
A hummingbird clearwing moth flies to its next beebalm flower.
It’s a crucial pollinator, especially for twilight-blooming flowers that other pollinators, like bees and butterflies, often miss. Their long proboscises allow them to reach deep into flowers, ensuring the pollination of plants that might otherwise struggle to reproduce. This moth helps maintain the health and biodiversity of various ecosystems by facilitating a successful propagation of a wide variety of plants.
The wings start off a solid red/black color. On their first flight, much of the wing scales fall off, giving each moth a unique pattern where the scales were shed.
I love these little guys so much. Its such a shame that people often slaughter the caterpillar form, the hornworm, because they eat people’s tomato plants. We buy a sacrificial tomato plant every year instead to transfer hornworms onto. Heres one of our hummingbird moth visitors!
That is so thoughtful of you! All of our animal friends deserve such compassion. A very lovely photo as well! I’ve never seen one or even knew they were a thing before finding this post, so I will have to keep my eyes out now!
Here is a pic of a hummingbird moth caterpillar for everyone.